Aqueduct Preview | Go For Wand Stakes 2023: Dr B Draws Back To Attempt Title Defense

Cash is King and LC Racing’s Dr B will vie to successfully defend her title in Saturday’s Grade 3, $200,000 Go for Wand, a one-mile main track test for fillies and mares 3-years-old and up, at Aqueduct Racetrack.

The Go for Wand, carded as Race 8, is one of four graded stakes slated for Saturday’s stacked Cigar Mile Day card, which features the Grade 2, $500,000 Cigar Mile Handicap presented by NYRA Bets in Race 10, and a pair of nine-furlong Kentucky Derby and Kentucky Oaks qualifiers for juveniles that award 10-5-3-2-1 points to the top-five finishers in the Grade 2, $250,000 Remsen in Race 9 and the Grade 2, $250,000 Demoiselle for fillies in Race 7. First post for the 10-race card is 11:50 a.m. Eastern. 

Trained by Butch Reid, Jr., Dr B scored her first graded victory in last year’s Go for Wand in wire-to-wire fashion, drawing off strongly down the stretch to cross the finish line 4 1/4 lengths ahead of post-time favorite Bank Sting in a final time of 1:35.18. The win, which garnered a career-best 103 Beyer Speed Figure, followed a pair of runner-up efforts in Parx Racing’s Roamin Rachel and the Pumpkin Pie at Belmont at the Big A, the latter of which she lost by just three-quarter lengths in her first start over the Aqueduct main track.

This year, the 5-year-old daughter of Liam’s Map enters from a fourth in the Parx Dirt Mile when taking on males over sloppy and sealed going on September 23 at Parx. That effort came after making four starts at the graded level this year, including a good runner-up effort to Caramel Swirl in the Grade 3 Vagrancy when making her seasonal debut in May at Belmont Park, and a second-place finish behind 2021 Champion 2-Year-Old Filly Echo Zulu in the Grade 2 Honorable Miss Handicap in July at Saratoga Race Course. She boasts a lifetime record of 21-5-7-2 with total purse earnings of $473,240.

Reid, Jr. said he looks forward to Dr B returning to the Big A.

“It’s a funny course and she seems to enjoy it,” said Reid, Jr. “We’re going to give her the opportunity. We expect her to show good speed in there and she should be nice and fresh.”

Jose Lezcano has the call from post 2.

Four-time Eclipse Award-winning trainer Chad Brown will send out Klaravich Stables’ Grade 2-winner Gerrymander [post 6, Jose Ortiz] as she rounds back into form off a facile score in an off-the-turf running of the Noble Damsel on October 8 when facing a match race against Sunset Louise. The daughter of Into Mischief made easy work of her lone foe and drew clear in the stretch to win by 25 lengths.

The consistent bay was Grade 1-placed as a juvenile when second in the Frizette at Belmont, and went on the win the Grade 2 Mother Goose last year with a three-length score over Big Sandy that garnered a career-best 98 Beyer. This year, she finished a pacesetting third in the Grade 2 Ruffian in May at Belmont ahead of three close on-the-board finishes in optional claiming company.

Gerrymander, a $375,000 purchase at the Keeneland September Yearling Sale, breezed a half-mile in 49.77 seconds on Sunday over the Belmont Park training track.

“She breezed quite well, and I think this will be the right distance for her,” said Brown. “The one-turn mile suits her. She’s coming back into form, so she looks good.”

Brown will also saddle Peter Brant’s Good Sam [post 7, Irad Ortiz, Jr.], who has made three starts this year after a seven-month layoff that followed a successful stakes debut in last year’s one-mile Tempted here.

The daughter of Good Samaritan finished second against elders in second-level optional claiming company in her first two starts of her sophomore campaign, bested in June at Belmont by graded stakes-winner Midnight Stroll and in July at Saratoga by multiple graded stakes-placed Sterling Silver. She broke through at the same level last out on October 4 when pouncing from off the pace to win by 3 1/2 lengths sprinting seven furlongs.

“It was very important for her to win last out and I was quite pleased with her race,” said Brown. “She took a little while to come around this year, but she’s in good form now.”

KimDon Racing’s Tizzy in the Sky [post 5, Luis Saez] came up a neck shy of her first stakes win last out when finishing second to Interstatedaydream in the nine-furlong Turnback the Alarm on November 3 here. Trained by Hall of Famer Todd Pletcher, the 4-year-old daughter of Sky Kingdom led through each point of call under Kendrick Carmouche and raced bravely down the lane, but could not stave off the determined Interstatedaydream, who completed the course in 1:50.34.

A three-time winner from eight starts, Tizzy in the Sky was a dominant 9 3/4-length winner two starts back in a nine-furlong optional claiming contest on October 4 here. Both of her most recent efforts were awarded a career-best 91 Beyer.

Completing the field are the pair of New York-breds in multiple graded stakes-placed Venti Valentine [post 3, Manny Franco] for trainer Jorge Abreu, and Know It All Audrey [post 4, Javier Castellano], a last-out winner of the state-bred Empire Distaff, for conditioner Oscar Barrera, Jr.; along with the Brittany Russell-trained three-time winner Saddle Up Jessie [post 1, Dylan Davis].